50's Engagement Nails

A couple months ago we took our engagement pics and we got all dolled up. We decided we wanted a retro flare to our Harry Potter-themed engagement pic shoot, and I went and got a gooooorgeous pincurl hair style and a cute little dress and... it was so much fun.

But deciding on nails was VERY important. Since we were going super classy with our style, we decided our nails had to stay simple, classy, and cute. I'm a jerk and didn't get a final pic of the nails in the lightbox, but they did show up in our pics. ;)
I went with Hot Rod Red and Arctic White half moons, while my fiancée went with A Little Cream Please and Need A Tan in a very Gwen-Stefani-OPI-inspired look ;) Here's another look at our nails:
And some more pics ;) We made the brooms ourselves -- and yes, our awesome photographer strung up the broom to have us sit on it. It was scary. And painful. But awesome.

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Gelish Mani Sunday | A Game of Nails

My roommate is a big fan of the A Song of Ice and Fire book series, and for the newest season of Game of Thrones she request nails inspired by her favorite house, House Martell. Now that I've seen a few episodes of the new season, I can see why she likes them!

#Badass.

I knew nothing about the Martells and she told me "sand and sunspear", so I went with that.
I finally tried something I've been wanting to try: gel polish sugar nails. I drool every time I see Zoya Pixie Dust pop up on my Instagram feed, and I've really wanted to try to replicate that effect with Gelish. First I tried decorative sand from the craft store, but the grains were way too big, then I tried salt - better, but still large. I stuck with the salt, but I might try actual sugar next time ;)

To do it I mixed a tiny bit of salt with a few drops of polish, then scooped it up with a wide nail art brush and patted it onto the nail. After curing it I got a slightly darker polish color and stippled it across the nail to give it some dimension. Another cure, then I stippled a tiny bit of brown glitter across the nail and finished with a light coat of Top It Off. The technique definitely needs some refining, but at least it kinda worked!

For the above manicure I did the following:

Thumb Nail:

1. • 1 coat Allure, 1 coat Danny's Little Helpers, and 1 more coat Allure, cure all coats
2. • Wipe tacky layer. Hand-painted the red sun with Hot Rod Red, cure
3. • Wipe tacky layer. Hand-painted the spear with yellow and black Folk Art acrylic paint. Let paint dry completely.
4. • Finished with 2 coats of TIO, cure all coats

Index Nail:

1. • 3 coats Lust at First Sight, cure all coats
2. • Dabbed Gelish Structure onto the polish and pressed the studs in, cure
3. • Finished with 2 coats of TIO, cure all coats

Middle Nail:

1. • 1 coat Lust at First Sight, cure
2. • 1 coat All That Glitters Is Gold, cure
3. • 1 coat Lust at First Sight, cure
4. • 1 coat of TIO, cure
5. • Wipe tacky layer. Stamp image using Konad White and MoYou Pro 06 plate. Let dry completely.
6. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

Ring Nail:

1. • Mix Lust At First Sight with salt and pat onto nail, cure
2. • Stipple A Little Cream Please with nail art brush, cure
3. • Press a small amount of brown glitter into tacky layer
4. • Finished with 1 thin coat of TIO, cure

Pinky Nail:

1. • 2 coats Lust At First sight, cure all coats
2. • Press gold foil into the tacky layer until desired look is achieved
3. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

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Gelish Mani Sunday | Hello Kitty

My roommate loves Hello Kitty.

I think she has a Hello Kitty doll for every season of the year, we have a Hello Kitty shopping bag, I believe her wallet is Hello Kitty... about 11 years ago, back in our college days, she got me OBSESSED with a Hello Kitty game for Gameboy Color. So when she said she wanted black and red nails for her upcoming Vegas trip, I decided to give Hello Kitty a try.
Not too shabby, if I do say so myself! I hand-painted the Hello Kitty - first time I've ever hand-painted something quite like that before. I made some mistakes and learned some lessons - for example, that middle finger? With the cute bow and polka dots? I layed down 2 coats of Black Shadow first, then when it came time to add the red, I realized too late that Hot Rod Red is WAY too sheer and would've needed a gazillion coats to achieve opacity over the black. I ended up putting down 2 coats of Arctic Freeze THEN 3 coats of Hot Rod Red on top of that. Below, I'm going to write out the steps as they SHOULD have been, not as I actually did them. -_-

Seven. Coats. Of polish.
I have to say, painting that black outline around the Hello Kitty was the hardest part. I'm sure it gets easier with practice, but MAN that takes a steady hand. All in all the mani took 3 freaking hours, but it was worth it when my roommate told me one of her coworkers thought the painted Hello Kitty was a sticker! ;) It was reeeeally important for me to get the Hello Kitty right. I wanted to make sure she looked like Hello Kitty and not, like, Hellow Catty.
All in all I'm really enjoying hand-painting designs. Hopefully I'll get better with practice!

For the above manicure I did the following:

Thumb Nail:

1. • 2 coats Black Shadow, cure all coats
2. • 1 coat Matte TIO, cure
3. • Wipe tacky layer. Using a nail art brush, paint bow using 1 coat of regular TIO, cure

Index Nail:

1. • 2 coats Hot Rod Red, cure all coats
2. • Wipe tacky layer. Using a nail art brush, paint stripes using 2 coats of Black Shadow, cure all coats
3. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

Middle Nail:

1. • 3 coats Hot Rod Red, cure all coats
2. • Wipe tacky layer. Using a nail art brush, paint black half moon with Black Shadow and flash cure. Continue painting the bow and polka dots with Black Shadow, flash curing as needed. Cure for full time when complete.
3. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

Ring Nail:

1. • 3 coats Hot Rod Red, cure all coats
2. • Wipe tacky layer. Using a nail art brush, paint Hello Kitty using Sheek White and Go Girl, flash curing as needed. Cure for full time when complete. Then using black Folk Art acrylic paint, paint the outline and black details. Let fully dry.
3. • Finished with 2 coats of TIO, cure all coats

Pinky Nail:

1. • 2 coats Hot Rod Red, cure all coats
2. • 2 coats Life of the Party, cure all coats
3. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

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Gelish Chinese New Year Mani | Red, Gold, and Dragons

The first month of this year has started off a bit rough. I have friends and family facing health and financial problems, so I felt like I was in need of some good luck to kick off the year. I decided to go with some reds and golds and stamping for Chinese New Year (is that PC? Is Lunar New Year better?).
I gave the gold Konad stamping polish another shot, and I was again disappointed. It's just not very visible, which is a shame because the images from MoYou Suki 01 and 07 plates are gooorgeous. The middle finger stamp is a Japanese fan and on the thumb is the face of a Chinese dragon. I should also mention I had a HELL of a time getting the fan image to transfer with the Konad gold polish. I got my left hand stamped in a couple of tries, but even after 20 minutes I could NOT get the fan image to transfer onto my Konad stamper again so I could stamp the right hand. I even tried using a different polish to see if it was the stamper or the plate... the other polish was fine, it was just that Konad gold that wouldn't transfer. I ended up stamping a bamboo image on my right hand just to be done with it.

On the ring finger I used Kim from Ten Little Canvasses' tutorial on making gems with Gelish structure. I put a little gold glitter in the circle frame, but I wish I had used gold polish instead. I think it would've had a nicer effect. The index finger is a layer of Allure, All That Glitters Is Gold, some loose gold glitter, then another layer of All That Glitters.

I used 2 coats of Hot Rod Red for the red nails - really feels like the PEFECT red for Chinese New Year. I know Gelish came out with a Year of the Snake set last year and a Year of the Horse set this year, and while I still really want Meet The King, I think I'll skip on the other colors (at least until the collector's bug bites me). ;)

On the pinky and ring finger I used 2 coats of Allure over one coat of Arctic Freeze. I had thought that, since Allure was a bit sheer, I should lay down a layer of white. I did this on my left hand but on my right hand I did 3 coats of Allure with no white base coat. I really feel like the 3 coats of Allure looks much better than 2 coats over white. I also used Hot Rod Red to paint (what the internet tells me is) the year of the horse symbol.

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